I looked out over the 3000 or so faces. Bored, excited and eager to go home faces. If I got out of this alive I promised myself to retire, find a nice, safe job somewhere in a little cottage industry back on Earth.

“Uhm, Kiki’s Time Travel and Emporium wish you to have the best time in your visit here. And to celebrate our 25th anniversary,” hope no one caught the lie. “We have decided to give you a quick tour of the rings of Saturn. This may take a few days,” months, “and sleeping arrangements will be made for all of you. We will still, as promised, return you to our real time only a few minutes later than when we left.”

I caught the eyes of the, now worried, waiters and signalled them to keep the food and champagne going. The crowd murmured, fortunately it murmured more good than bad.

I quickly checked the scanners and the ship’s telemetry. Once I’d set the course for Saturn I could fix the drive, hopefully.

Shock #2 came then. Something was sucking us towards the Sun.